PORCUPINES

Two days ago I was walking home on the trail east of our cabin when I spotted something out of place in a pine tree.  I have a habit of looking up at the tree tops in wintertime hoping to see something unexpected but seldom do.  Years ago, my son and I were hiking across the creek about this time of year and looked up into a large white pine to see a great gray owl staring back at us.  We'll never forget that rare owl's visit to our woods.

The other day I didn't see an owl but a large gray ball up in the white pine tree that looked out of place, way up near the top.  I inched my way through the snow close to the base of the tree and took a few photos.

What I'd spotted was a large porcupine clinging to a branch near the tree's top.  I've seen porkies sit up high in trees before and I'm not sure why they do this in the middle of winter.  Sometimes they get carried away with their voracious appetite, stripping off enough bark to kill the tree. 

The porcupine was in this white pine, near the top, on the left.

Porcupines are strange animals.  I remember the havoc they caused when my brother's hound dogs got into a tangle with them.  The dogs ended up with noses filled with sharp quills from the porky.  The quills are of various sizes and have very sharp tips.  A porcupine cannot throw a quill at something; he has to come in direct contact before the quills will stick. 


A beautiful form of artwork called "quilling" has interested me for many years.  Porcupine quills are used like thread to stitch designs into birch bark, creating animals, flowers, and other beautiful designs.   The holes in the bark are predrilled making it easier to weave the quills back and forth through the bark.  The quills are sometimes dyed different colors too. Often quill work is stitched on birch bark trinket boxes.  I bought one as a keepsake and mine has a beaver on the lid of the box.

I gathered the quills in the photo above from a road kill porcupine, and poked my fingers a few times in the process!

Old folks used to say the best thing about a porcupine in the bush was that it could provide an easy meal for a hungry hunter, as the animal never moves far or fast and makes an easy target.   I don't think I'd enjoy eating a porcupine but then, I'm not starving!